Byline from Clear Water Press
Byline is an exciting new writing curriculum from Clear Water Press for students in 8-12th grades. This video-taught curriculum will have your students exploring history and journalism by becoming "chronojournalists" for a 1930's era newspaper and "Giving yesterday's news today".
Along their journey they will learn the art of essay writing, journalism, note-taking, history and plenty of critical thinking skills while earning a full high school English credit, and a .5 History credit (with a few extra assignments)!
The program contains 72 video lessons that are available on DVD or can be streamed from your internet ready device. Each lesson is about 15-20 minutes long, and you can complete the program in a school year by watching 3 lessons per week. You can Watch Sample Lessons » to see for yourself.
The Reporter's Notebook and 2 printed newspapers round out the student portion of the program.
- The Reporter's Notebook is a spiral bound notebook that is designed to be used by the student. It helps reinforce the lessons, and encourages them to hone their observation skills.
- The Newspapers - The Retro Metro and The Metropolitan World are included to inspire your students and provide examples of journalism.
The Teacher's Guide contains everything you need to help your student. Grading and evaluation, assigned readings, weekly lesson guides, and unit tests and answer keys.
The entire program is broken down into 4-week units that focus on teaching the "six serving men" of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
During the year, they will get a chance to explore both journalism and history. This was our favorite part of the program! Here a several of the famous personalities we were introduced to:
• Rudyard Kipling
• Mark Twain
• Nellie Bly
• Ernest Hemingway
• Jacob Riis
• James Connolly
• H. L. Mencken
• Jack London
• Joseph Pulitzer
• Damon Runyon
• Lincoln Steffens
• Ida Tarbell
• Ray Stannard Baker
• Grantland Rice
• Russell B. Porter
• Mary Ann Shadd
• William Allen White
• Richard Harding Davis
We used Byline with our high school Co-op. We had 12 students, grades 9-12th. It was a great fit for our various ages and grades. If your are looking for a writing program that will inspire your students to want to write, Byline is it. Our students were ready to be challenged, but not by another checklist.
While this program can be used independently, it works very well in a group setting. Our students occasionally watched the teaching videos together with the DVD, and occasionally streamed them during outside class time. Coop licenses are available from Clear Water Press. One benefit of using Byline in our Coop was the opportunity for our students to peer review each other's writing. We even created our very own "PEACE Pulitzer" prize.
The students loved the historical material included in Byline. Some of the writing projects included essays on Irena Sendler, the Hindenburg, and Nelly Bly. Our students really enjoyed exploring the lesser-known events in history. A friend, who is a college journalism professor, was impressed as I told him about Byline. He told me he, "never gets freshman who knows who Nellie Bly was!"
Many writing assignments were more journalism-themed with various writing projects like scenic leads, hyberbolic warnings (a class favorite to share), orchestra reviews, and muckraking. Our students learned to spot biases and propaganda, a very useful skill for everyday life.By the time your student completes the program, they will have written over 9,000 words! If you have a younger student, flex-assignments are included that you can customize to their level.
The videos were very professionally done. Daniel Schwabauer teaches in a relaxed, easy-to-understand way as their "editor-in-chief". Along the way, the students get the chance to meet Madge Whitherspoon, the "owner" of the newspaper they are writing for. Mr. S has put care into creating videos that are not only educational, but also entertaining with attention to every detail!
One of the benefits from Byline was that our students starting reading and evaluating news differently. My students starting to notice propaganda in new ways. Not only did they improve their writing skills, they improved their thinking skills!
Daniel Schwabauer is an entertaining and knowledgeable teacher. He varies his approaches in the video lessons, and keeps their interest captured throughout the program.
Byline is so much fun, they don't even realize it's a writing program....shhh - don't tell them! I guarantee your students will learn a lot and have fun doing it with Byline.
Be sure to check out other products from Clear Water Press:
One Year Adventure Novel - 9-12th grades. We've done this one too! Your students write their own adventure novel.
Disclaimer:
I was given a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest and personal opinion.
I was given a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest and personal opinion.
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